1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates generally to wheeled carts, and more particularly to collapsible carts for transporting multiple items.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wheeled carts have long been in use for a variety of purposes. A cart bears the weight of a load of items to be carried and frees the hands of a user for other activities. Wheeled carts are frequently used in grocery stores, where customers view a large variety of merchandise and typically select a relatively large quantity of separate items for purchase. In recent years consumers have favored large multi-purpose stores for items such as hardware, clothing, office supplies and other merchandise. Many of these stores offer shopping carts, for use by customers while they are in the stores. Customers shopping for groceries, hardware and other products push a cart along as they shop. When an item is selected for purchase it is placed in the cart. The customer may continue to shop for additional items without the need for hand carrying the items already selected. Typical shopping carts have the capacity to hold a large quantity of merchandise and are generally convenient to use; however, they do have some drawbacks. As a shopping cart becomes filled, the merchandise at the bottom tends to be crushed by the other items. This can be a problem with certain fragile food items. In stores that offer a wide variety of merchandise, a customer may wish to avoid mixing clothing, food, hardware, and other items. Typically, shopping carts do not have separate compartments. Additionally, a customer may wish to view the items in a shopping cart to refresh the memory as to which items have already been selected and placed in the cart. When many items have been loaded in a typical shopping cart, it may be difficult to view all of them.
When the customer is finished shopping, he or she pays for all of the merchandise in the cart. After leaving the cashier, the customer may have to hand-carry their merchandise, typically bagged, to a parked vehicle. Some stores allow the customers to wheel the cart to a loading area, or to wheel the cart to the location of the customer's vehicle, where the merchandise is transferred to the vehicle. Once the items have been transferred to a customer's vehicle, the shopping cart must be returned to a storage area of the store. Consequently, upon arriving home to unload the merchandise, the customer must typically make several trips back-and-forth from the vehicle to the home, hand-carrying the bagged merchandise without the aid of a cart.
There is a need for a compact versatile cart, which can be owned by a user and carried to and from the store in the user's vehicle. It would be desirable to provide such a cart having separate compartments, each for carrying particular merchandise, to facilitate handling and viewing. It would be further desirable to provide such a cart that facilitates transport of products between the vehicle and the home, as well as from the store to the vehicle. In that regard, it would be desirable to provide such a cart that would enable a user to transport an entire shopping cart of merchandise, from the vehicle to the home, in only one trip.